A Robbie Keane strike three minutes before half-time was enough to give Tottenham Hotspur a 1-0 win over St Patrick's Athletic in a thrill-a-minute friendly at a sold-out Richmond Park writes Mark Cummins.
Keane lashed a close-range effort from the left of the box past Barry Ryan and into the top right corner.
Ryan had a fantastic first half and made excellent saves from Keane, Adel Taarabt and €25million man Darren Bent.
A plethora of substitutions included Brendan Clarke for Ryan at half-time and the youngster pulled off super stops from Jacques Maghoma, Younes Kaboul and Jaime O’Hara.
St Pat-s manager Johnny McDonnell gave debuts to his new 20-year-old English recruit Keith Barker and to Billy Gibson, who had made the bench for the loss to Waterford United last Friday night.
Another new signing, giant Czech 26-year-old midfielder Michal Macek, started from the bench.
The visitors included Bent and Republic of Ireland captain Keane from the start.
The quality of the English opposition was much in evidence after just 90 seconds when excellent interplay between Keane, Bent, Steed Malbranque and Adel Taarabt ultimately saw Malbranque in possession and well positioned dead centre but Alan Kirby closed him down.
Pat's were well up for the challenge with the new boys settling in well. Anthony Murphy showed Gareth Bale who the boss was on the right wing.
Taarabt had the first shot anywhere near goal on eight minutes but he blasted over from 20 yards out.
Pat's goalkeeper Ryan was called into action twice within the space of a minute, first to deny Keane on 14 minutes and then to block a Bent effort on 15.
Keane put Taarabt through on 19 minutes but the Frenchman dilly-dallied around with his fancy footwork and lost possession.
Seconds later he saw his 25-yard piledriver go wide.
On 23, Ryan again got down well to block a powerful shot by Bent.
The Co Clare man was in action again two minutes later when he blocked a Keane shot, after Stephen Paisley had taken the ball from Bent's foot.
What followed was a tremendous onslaught on the Pat's goal by Spurs with Keane, Taarbat and Bent all having a go.
On 34, Darragh Maguire denied Malbranque with a combination of head and shoulder while Murphy cleared off the line seconds later.
Ryan was playing a blinder and pulled off a fine save from a Bale free kick on 39. He could not hold out for ever though and the breakthrough finally came on 42.
Build-up work from Bent, Anthony Gardner and Taarabt saw Keane claim possession on the left of the box and the Tallaght man lashed a rocket past Ryan and into the top right corner of the net.
The second half started with a plethora of substitutions, mostly for Pat's.
One of those to come on was captain Colm Foley but he lasted only 12 minutes before being carried off on a stretcher.
Clarke, who had come to make only his third first team appearance of the season, saw his first action on the hour mark when he saved well from Jacques Maghoma.
Clarke then dived well to deny Younes Kaboul on 70 minutes and Jaime O'Hara on 79.
St Patrick’s Athletic: Ryan (Clarke h/t), A Murphy, Rogers (C Foley h/t - S Quigley 57), Paisley (Haverty 83), Maguire, Gibson, Brennan (Frost h/t), M Keane (M Foley 70), M Quigley (Guy h/t), Barker (Murphy 70), Kirby (Mulcahy h/t).
Tottenham Hotspur: Cerny, Rocha, Bale (Ifil 80), Zokora, Kaboul, Gardner (Dawson), Malbranque, D Murphy (O‘Hara 57), Bent (Barnard 70), Keane, Taarabt (Maghoma h/t).
Referee: Damien Hancock (Dub).
Attendance: 4,500
